All my life I've sworn to anyone who'd listen that I had no accent whatsoever. I honestly couldn't hear one in my voice. I live near Boston, so I know many people with endearingly grating Bostonian accents, and I was pretty sure I didn't "pahk the cah" nearly as bad as they did. So when I took the quiz I wasn't surprised to find I had - huzzah - a Midland accent. Exciting. I see Boston was second, though.
The quiz was a little tricky because I wasn't sure if concentrating on the words would affect how I pronounced them. I ended up mumbling little sentences to myself with the appropriate words in them; I did this a dozen times for each question until I was satisfied. I think my roommates think I'm insane.
Some thoughts about specific questions:
- For the Mary-merry-marry bit, I definitely say merry with more of an eh sound than Mary and marry, which sound alike. Am I alone in this? The quiz made me feel lonely.
- I've never even considered that pen and pin could sound the same. The South is weird.
I also took the "What American accent do you really have?" quiz, which seems to be an updated version of the original by the same guy. There were a few more questions, some different choices, but the same result: Midlands.
